Den sorte drøm (1911)

The young circus performer Stella is adored by two men: An earl and a jeweler. She fancies the earl the most, but at some point the jeweler made advances to her and the earl hits him. The ... See full summary »

Director:

Urban Gad

Writers:

Urban Gad (screenplay), Gebhard Schätzler-Perasini (screenplay)

Stars:

Asta Nielsen, Valdemar Psilander, Gunnar Helsengreen

Cast

Complete credited cast:
Asta Nielsen	...	Stella
Valdemar Psilander	...	Grev Johan Waldberg
Gunnar Helsengreen	...	Hofjuveler A. Hirsch
Rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Emil Albes
Hugo Flink
Mary Hagen

Storyline

The young circus performer Stella is adored by two men: An earl and a jeweler. She fancies the earl the most, but at some point the jeweler made advances to her and the earl hits him. The jeweler challenges the earl - to a card game. After some luck the earl loses again and again. At the end he has to sign an instrument of debt of 85000 Mark. He buys a gun with the intent to commit suicide. Stella discovers the gun and takes it away from him. Stella goes to the jewelers and steals a necklace. The jeweler sees it in a mirror but doesn't stop her. Instead he follows her. She meets with the earl and gives him the necklace and tells him to sell it. After they part, the jeweler grabs her and confronts her with her misdeed. He doesn't hand her over to the police, though he gets an opportunity. Instead he compels her to have dinner with him. The earl sells the necklace to a wholesale jeweller. The jeweller buys back the necklace and gets a testimonial from the wholesale jeweller about the ...

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Plot Keywords:

ménage à trois

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Genres:

Drama

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Details

Country:

Germany Denmark

Release Date:

19 August 1911 (Germany)

Also Known As:

The Black Dream

Filming Locations:

Århus, Jylland, Denmark

Company Credits

Production Co:

Fotorama

Technical Specs

Runtime:

53 min 53 min

Sound Mix:

Silent

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Did You Know?

Connections

Featured in The Talking Muse (2003)

User Reviews

Genre Case

I've seen a few Danish silent films from the 1910s now, and it seems many of them, if not most of them, are pretty much the same. They're sensational melodramas involving a tragic woman, vamp or femme fatal type character, in addition to the good guy and the bad guy. And, there's usually a circus involved. This film, "The Black Dream", contains all of that. I find it interesting to compare these films as a genre study.

"The Black Dream" is a weak entry. The two stars of this one, Asta Nielsen and Valdemar Psilander, made similar films during their careers. They seem to overact more than usual here. The camera is static, as usual then, although the scene dissection is decent for 1911. There are some noticeable moments of unpolished film-making. One scene, I think, actually ends a second or two after the director had called cut. Overall, the film dawdles.

One thing to look for, though: the use of a mirror in one scene to show action otherwise out of frame. This idea was taken further by August Bloom in another film from 1911, "Temptations of a Great City" (Ved Fængslets Port).